3rd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour
We're participating in a blog tour created by a fellow Minneapolis bungalow blogger, StuccoHouse. Be sure to follow the links for the next and previous blogs on the tour and send them some comment love if you like what you see!
Hello to everyone making the rounds on the Bungalow blog tour, this is Mike and Katrina and we're newbies on the tour. In fact, we're newbies to Bungalows in general having only lived in ours for a year. We didn't know what a bungalow was when we started house hunting. We knew we wanted an old house with lots of character which we found out is called "Arts & Crafts", we knew 1.5 story houses fit our budget which turned out to be called "Bungalows and Tudors", and we knew we wanted a house we could do some work on which turned out to be called "every old house"!
Our house hunting ended when we found this 1920 Bungalow in Minneapolis.
Moving in
We jumped right into fixing it up. We spent the first week in our house prying up 2 layers of linoleum in the kitchen to reveal the original hardwood floors.
The next week we sanded, stained, and sealed all the hardwood on the main level. It didn't take long for us to realize how much work DIYing an old house can be but how rewarding the work is when it's done!
Redecorating
With some of the grunt work out of the way, we moved on to updating some of the cosmetics. We finished the kitchen, the first major room renovation of our house.
We removed the forest green carpet and redesigned the master bedroom.
And transformed a universe themed bedroom into a guest bedroom.
p.s. Yes that's the same bed frame in both pictures, it's a long story!
Loving an old house
Along with redecorating the house, we've run into our share of old house problems. I think Bungalow roofs were specifically designed to encourage ice dams because we certainly had our fair share! We've learned a lot about stucco, plaster, balloon framing, knob and tube wiring, radiators, and boilers. It's a good thing we're fascinated with old houses or this whole ordeal might be frustrating!
Along with learning how old houses work, we've also learned about our house and it's history. It's had several owners in it's 91 years and it's a constant reminder that we won't be the last ones to live here. It motivates us to do things right not only for our own satisfaction but for the longevity of the house and for the next owners.
Going forward
Our to-do list is longer now than it was a year ago. Every time we finish a project we think of two more! We still want to tackle the exterior of the house, landscaping, and redecorating the remaining rooms but first we're refinishing the basement. So far we've made a plan and finished demolition, from here it's building and trying to put our own Arts & Crafts finishes on the space to help it flow with the rest of the original house. Hopefully by the 4th annual bungalow blog tour we'll be finished!!
Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the other houses on the tour!
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May 13th, 2011 - 7:50 pm
How fun! How did you guys learn about the Bungalow tour? That is a pretty great sort of linky party. I'm going to 'tour' the other houses now
thanks for posting!
May 13th, 2011 - 8:05 pm
We heard about Stucco House from Bungalow23 and she posted a few weeks ago about the tour! The party officially starts tomorrow so the rest of the blogs might not be linked up yet. Have fun!
May 13th, 2011 - 9:31 pm
I had to chuckle reading your comments about sanding your kitchen floor and suddenly realizing that these old houses are a lot of work (in a good way). I had a similar realization while redoing my living room & dining room floors
Thanks for joining the tour this year!
May 14th, 2011 - 5:03 am
I'm a sucker for a kitchen remodel and yours looks fabulous…
May 14th, 2011 - 12:05 pm
I love what you did in your kitchen! We are newbies to bungalows as well… We have only owned our home for a little over a year now. Thanks for the tour!
Michelle from
theBoisBungalow.blogspot.com
May 14th, 2011 - 2:24 pm
You've gotten so much done in just a year. It's looking great!
May 16th, 2011 - 11:04 am
Kudos on your house fixin' — for a second there I thought I was looking at stuccouhouse's home. Looks to be a familiar style of bungalow there in minneapolis. Looking forward to reading up on all your progress. Thanks
May 16th, 2011 - 12:38 pm
I said the same to Bungalow 23 (who I have followed for some time now), but this blog tour is seriously the coolest idea! I especially like your master bedroom renovation! Seems like there are several bungalow bloggers there in Minneapolis?
May 16th, 2011 - 12:44 pm
Thanks for joining the tour this year and letting us view some of your progress. It looks good.
May 17th, 2011 - 5:38 am
What a super job you did on the kitchen. With no before and after labels on those photos, for awhile there I was clutching my heart, thinking you'd "modernized" it
I had to go to the original post to say Whew 
June 6th, 2011 - 11:19 pm
It’s nice to have another Minnesota bungalow on the tour.
Ditto on you coming a very long way in a year. You should be very proud of your home and yourselves. From the outside looking in, it looks amazing.
Hope to see you on the tour next year.